Arm Limited

Apical Limited

Mathieu Jean Joseph Robart

Daren Croxford

Sharjeel Saeed

William Robert Stoye

Richard Bruce

Jørn Nystad

An instruction (or set of instructions) that can be included in a program to perform a ray tracing acceleration data structure traversal, with individual execution threads in a group of execution threads executing the program performing a traversal operation for a respective ray in a corresponding group of rays such that the group of rays performing the traversal operation together. The instruction(s), when executed by the execution threads in respect of a node of the ray tracing acceleration data structure, cause one or more rays from the group of plural rays that are performing the traversal operation together to be tested for intersection with the one or more volumes associated with the node being tested. A result of the ray-volume intersection testing can then be returned for the traversal operation.

Graphics processing

There is provided an instruction, or instructions, that can be included in a program to perform a ray tracing operation, with individual execution threads in a group of execution threads executing the program performing the ray tracing operation for a respective ray in a corresponding group of rays such that the group of rays performing the ray tracing operation together. The instruction(s), when executed by the execution threads will cause one or more rays from the group of plural rays to be tested for intersection with a set of primitives. A result of the ray-primitive intersection testing can then be returned for the traversal operation.

In a graphics processing system comprising a graphics processor, a main memory, and a memory management unit, when rendering a frame that represents a view of a scene comprising one or more objects using a ray tracing process and the ray tracing process requires a traversal of a ray tracing acceleration data structure indicative of the distribution of geometry for the scene being rendered to determine geometry for the scene that may be intersected by a ray, at least part of the traversal of the ray tracing acceleration data structure is performed by the memory management unit (MMU).

When rendering a new frame using a hybrid ray tracing process, a graphics processor transforms vertex position data for models representing objects in the new frame into camera space for use in a rasterisation process of the hybrid ray tracing process irrespective of whether the object has moved between frames or whether the geometry of the model representing object has changed, but only transforms vertex position data for a model for an object into world space for use in a ray tracing process of the hybrid ray tracing process when the object has moved between frames or where the geometry of the model representing the object has changed.

When a programmable execution unit of a graphics processor is executing a graphics processing program to render a frame that represents a view of a scene using a ray tracing process, and the ray tracing process requires the determination of geometry that will be intersected by a ray, the programmable execution unit sends a message to a ray tracing acceleration data structure traversal circuit of the graphics processor, for the ray tracing acceleration data structure traversal circuit to perform a traversal of a ray tracing acceleration data structure for the scene to determine geometry for the scene that may be intersected by the ray. The ray tracing acceleration data structure traversal circuit then returns to the programmable execution unit an indication of geometry that may be intersected by the ray, and the programmable execution unit uses the indicated geometry to determine any geometry that is intersected by the ray.

A method comprising the steps of generating a first representation and a second representation, where the first representation represents a first view of a computer-generated scene obtained from a first virtual camera and the second representation represents a second view of the computer-generated scene obtained from a second virtual camera. Each of the first and second representation comprises a plurality of rays which intersect with objects of the scene. A relationship is determined between a ray of the first representation and a ray of the second representation; which are grouped based on the relationship, to form a group of substantially similar rays. One or more of the groups of substantially similar rays are processed substantially simultaneously to produce a first a second rendered view of the computer-generated scene. The first the second rendered view are output to one or more display devices.

Dynamic stereoscopic rendering method and processor

A data processor renders a new frame of a sequence of frames by, for each one of a subset of set of a plurality of regions of the new frame, newly generating output data for data elements in the region in respect of the new frame using a ray tracing process, and by deriving output data for data elements in each remaining region of the set of a plurality of regions of the frame based on data generated previously in respect of a preceding frame.

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Papworth Everard, United Kingdom

Mathieu Jean Joseph Robart